First Lady and Patron of Women in Tourism, Auxillia Mnangagwa, is expected to officially launch a Women’s Desk in the ministry of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, this morning in Harare.
According to the Minister Of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Honourable Priscah Mupfumira, the launch of National chapter incorporates all provinces and is a follow up to the provincial chapters launched late last year. The desk seeks to increase women’s participation in the tourism and hospitality industry.
“The formation of the Women in Tourism National Chapter is key to us as a country and is certainly long overdue. Women in Zimbabwe are known to be hard working and given the opportunity, we believe they will contribute positively. I am happy that we have managed to harness the talent we have in the industry to get organised and have a standing structure to form an effective channel of communication in order to promote and inspire entrepreneurship in the tourism sector,’’ said Mupfumira.
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) is encouraging states are being to come up with defined structures to accommodate and encourage Women in Tourism to take an active role in contributing to the sector.
A Women Empowerment Initiative for Africa was tabled at the UNWTO Commission for Africa Meeting, which was held in Abuja, Nigeria in June 2018, where African ministers responsible for tourism were in attendance.
“As the government, and in line with the Constitution of Zimbabwe, Chapter 18, which seeks to promote gender equality and encourage women’s participation in the national economy, the Ministry has decided to assist women who are in the tourism business and its value chain to come up with an association to represent them” she added.
In addition to this, the Minister said the association was going to engage with other chapters for Women in Tourism globally at the upcoming all stakeholder inclusive World Tourism Summit for Women scheduled for Ghana in November this year.